In its pursuit to increase the efficiency of faculty members, and encourage exchange of experiences in the various health sciences, the UQU College of Public Health and Health Informatics organized a lecture on Monday, Rajab 20, 1438H, under the theme:  "Digital Pathology: Past, Present and Future". The lecture was given by Mr. Majdi al-Sadeq Haroon, instructor of microbiology at the Department of Environmental Health of the UQU College of Public Health and Health Informatics. Present were the supervisors of departments, as well as a constellation of the College's faculty members.

To begin with, Mr. Haroon provided an introduction to digital pathology, and defined it as "the use computer technology for converting microscopic optical images into digital images." He touched on such concepts as digital microscopy, full-slide microscopy, virtual frames, and virtual microscopy.

Mr. Haroon went on to explain that this system is made up of software, as well as the hardware: microscope, camera, scanner, computer, and monitor. It collects, processes, archives, stores, and retrieves photos.

Traditionally, he added, pathological education and training used to be carried out by using books and textbooks, as well as microscopes and microscope slides. Over the past two decades, though, the pathological resources online have been witnessed a remarkable boom, which helped make pathological resources available for students at the same time.

Mr. Haroon highlighted some of the applications of this technology, such as: remote access to slides, remote telemedicine (night calls, remote places), remote pathological practice for peer consulting, multi-institution cooperative studies, case series, etc. That is to be added to clinical applications, such as: data archiving and display, QA processes, scanning main diagnostic slides for outpatient cases, access to old cases for comparison, and teaching rare cases.

Besides, a number of the companies and institutions with expertise in providing digital pathology solutions were mentioned, including: Ovid, Aperio, BioImagine, Olympus, Omnix, 3D HighTech, and Leica.

Towards the end of the lecture, a discussion went on between the instructor and attendees on the following topics: impediments to the prevalence of digital pathology on a wide scale in spite of its numerous benefits. Such impediments include the resources necessary for infrastructure, training, software and hardware. Another topic covered by the discussion was the benefits of this technology for medical and health higher education.